Tuesday, August 26, 2008

NetworkManager in Fedora Installer

(this is a work post)

Yesterday, I committed a large number of code changes to the Fedora installer ("anaconda") that change how we do network device configuration. The move shifts us over to using NetworkManager. A lot of Linux users already know about NetworkManager because it's how you change wireless networks on your running system, but it can do more. We're using it early in the installation process so we can gain all of the functionality it supports.

For example, we will be able to do encrypted wireless installs using WPA passphrases or WEP keys. It's not quite ready yet, but I'm working on it. I have a few large items that I want to get cleaned up over the next few days, as well as backend code cleanup (lots of things can go now), and make sure that wireless installs can actually work.

For Fedora 10, users can expect NetworkManager in the installation process now. It's rough around the edges in rawhide at the moment, but it is working.

Also, this means the end of libdhcp, the piece of shit library I inherited at Red Hat that replaced libpump.